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Finland

The best part about the Fins is their modesty- or perhaps their misery. I'm not sure which it is, but almost everyone I met there said,

"Why would you come here? You could go anywhere in the world. Why come to this place?"

Technically speaking, I couldn't go anywhere in the world, I just happened to have an opportunity that presented itself to go to Finland. However, if I had never been to Finland, I think I would now be sad that I had never been to Finland; it was a place I wanted to see.

The Vikings! They're buried all over the place over there in Finland, and there are these cobblestone streets that lead through the fog into what may be an empty abyss- who knows? It's a mysterious place. Lovely. Totally worth going to.

That happened to me when I visited Lyon this summer. They couldn't understand why an American tourist would spend a week in Lyon, France. "Do you know someone there?" they would ask. It happens to be the culinary capital of France, bears a spooky resemblance to Pittsburgh, PA* and is an all around kick-ass little city with horrifically crime ridden train stations. I loved it. (Okay, not the train stations, they were scary)

*It has two rivers that come together at a point, a serious industrial history, a giant hill on one side like Mt. Washington complete with huge old church on top and 2 inclines to get there. They've got similar public transportation and many, many one-footed pigeons. Why *wouldn't* I go????